When Chicago native Rosita Arvigo moved to Belize in 1982, she
had lofty goals: to seek "medical freedom and racial
harmony."
Actually, the alternative physician ended up with results even
more lofty than the goals she had set. Arvigo has persuaded the
Belizean government to set aside 6,000 acres of rainforest, which
she calls Terra Nova, the world's only tropical reserve
specifically dedicated to the preservation of medicinal plants. She
has also combined efforts with ethnobotanist Michael Balick, in
cooperation with the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda,
Maryland, to search the plant world for possible cures for cancer
and AIDS by collecting and cataloguing more than 3,000 plants for
testing. And she educates what could be the next generation of
healers, providing tours for students, pharmacists and doctors, as
well as sponsoring a camp for at-risk youth, who help workers
identify and rescue trees.
In the United States, Arvigo's research has been translated
into a line of nine traditional healing products called Rainforest
Remedies. The products, including Belly Be Good for indigestion and
Clearing Support for internal cleansing and blood purification,
stem from her years studying with one of the world's oldest
Mayan healers, who died at age 103 last year. Twenty percent to 50
percent of all sales go to help save the rainforest.
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"I went to Belize for medical freedom. I didn't have a
big plan. Everything else just happened," says Arvigo. "I
wouldn't say I started out to make a company or save Mayan
medicine. I just followed my heart."
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